Tag Archives: flowers

Post navigation

Today, with a little welcome sunshine, I took my mirror-less, full frame camera into the garden to try out the macro lens (FE2.8/90). The poor flowers were a little worse for wear from the recent rain, icy weather and winds and some parts of our garden/jungle are so overgrown I did not venture to capture all my gorgeous camellias.

I did not use a tripod…. not really a good idea with macro shots, but being impatient, I wanted first to see what sort of photos lazy play would give. With the use of a tripod and more manual adjustments the results should only get better.

Even with this quick episode I am pretty happy….. those potato vine flowers are 3 cm across the widest part of the biggest one and the tiny forget me nots are 9mm (less than 1 cm) or less across the widest part of the bigger one!!!! (in summer I find they grow larger)

I have been busy lately, with commissioned works. Earlier in the week I posted, to the Hilton Hotel gift shop in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 10 of my my handpainted sets….silk scarf with matching brooch which enable the wearer many styling options. Most of the brooches were my preferred landscape impressions but on two I painted images inspired by the colourful fish of the Great Barrier Reef.

Today I also completed another scarf (no brooch) on which I have been working as a sample requested by Griffith University, again in Queensland. The scarves they are considering are to have Queensland native flowers on them and the suggestion was the Waratah on a sample item. Ready to mail tomorrow.

A third commission completed is a blue wren on silk. What a novel idea from the couple asking for this as a special silk anniversary gift.

I have been very busy in the studio creating for our busy tourist season. At a wonderful venture initiated by a local Council, Burnie Makers Workshop, I am fortunate to have been selected as a participating artist. I am there as a watercolourist and silk painter. We “Makers” give our time, on a rostered basis, to sit and demonstrate our art/craft to visitors and to chat with them. Cruise ship visit days are especially busy. I do love it.
There is an associated shop and we are able to leave some items for sale in the gift shop area and on the days we attend we can bring in, and set up, a bigger display. I usually demonstrate painting on silk, small paintings which I later put into cards, frames or various jewellery settings.
People who are unfamiliar with silk painting enjoy seeing a different art medium being used and those familiar with silk painting are often intrigued with my preference for a watercolour technique using no resist or antidiffusant of any type. I love the flow of the dyes and the serendipitous aspect of the way the paintings evolve. No two are ever the same. I had been painting for days at MW when it was time to post my final artists’ challenge day so silk painting was a natural choice.

I have been out all weekend but it was lovely to get out into the garden with the camera after dinner….. that is until the mosquitos started feasting on me!!. The summer heat has set in and the ground is dry so I wanted to take a stroll and capture some of the beauty before the garden succumbs to the full impact of summer. …….Although after the summer blooms there will be the seed heads… a variety of shapes that always fascinate me

Between entertaining visitors and blogging 101 tasks and visiting other people’s blogs I have been in my studio creating. Here are 6 new pendants each containing an encaustic art original in miniature. The pigmented wax is so vibrant and the resultant image has real depth. My encaustic jewellery is proving to be very popular and I LOVE doing them

Encaustic artoriginal wax paintings in pendant settings

…. these were scanned in using the printer scanner. I will try to get a better image with the camera… but in daylight.

My first artworks for the transition from 2014 to 2015 are these miniature encaustic paintings presented in little “frames” that you can wear. I love doing this with my art. Although I have done murals and enjoy doing works of all sizes I have always had a special love for the little. And as our walls are full, and modern design declares minimalism is the way to go, I am excited to be presenting my paintings as wearable art. No reproductions here. Each is a unique painting….. encaustic (pigmented wax), manipulated in its molten state, to form an interesting composition often suggestive (intentionally) of flowers from my garden….. iris, poppies, tulips….. And they are affordable (bracelets $33 includes postage in Australia, or I will pay half of postage overseas (customer pays the other half. At the rate these have sold they won’t hang around in my studio for long so let me know if you want one. bangle is lead and nickel free and is adjustable from small to medium/largish. The cover is a glass cabochon attached with E600 adhesive. The image is an original impressionist style painting using artist’s quality pigmented wax. Care instructions…… clean/polish glass with a soft cloth. Do not leave the artwork directly in front of a heater which is on high or on the dashboard of a car in summer unless you want to modify the image! Normal hot temperatures are OK… if your body can stand the heat, the artwork can too.